


Turtures In Aeternum

by shinyopals



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Jane Foster, F/M, Fluff, Jane Foster Loves Science, POV Jane Foster, Thor Is Not Stupid, Thor is not just smart he's adorable too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 17:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5834449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinyopals/pseuds/shinyopals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>‘Legend tells that some unlikely souls are known to pause in their work for reasons of leisure,’ deadpans Thor. ‘History does not say what trials they faced.’</i>
</p>
<p>Asgardian science is giving Jane a headache. Thor persuades her to take a break to see some of the sights with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turtures In Aeternum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Niobium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niobium/gifts).



> Thank you to [SerenaBancroft](http://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenaBancroft/) for being amazing and giving this a beta read.
> 
> [Niobium](archiveofourown.org/users/niobium) originally prompted me "Persimmon - bury me amid nature’s beauty" back in, like, October. Because I am incompetent this doesn't really match the prompt and also took four months to write. APOLOGIES.

She’s been trying to think of magic in purely scientific terms that day, creating models to parallel temperature, magnetic and gravitational fields. It doesn’t really work. At least, not the way she’d been crossing her fingers and hoping for. There’s something there... sometimes. The way the force of a person’s magic dissipates with distance is like gravity… except when it doesn’t and when it’s not.

Groaning, Jane screws her eyes shut and rubs her temples. She’s getting a headache to go along with the way her shoulders are aching. 

The access to Asgard’s data and information through the holograms had seemed like a perfect dream come true, until she’d begun to realise the immense size of what she faced. She can’t follow their work on the Bifrost until she can follow their understanding of magic, and she can’t do _that_ because even when they explain it scientifically (which is not guaranteed), it’s using math that doesn’t exist yet on Earth. Plus she’s pretty confident their understanding of the Bifrost is incomplete, given that they had to wait a year for a magical space cube to even fix it.

Still, maybe if she—

A feather-light touch to her arm startles her, and she opens her eyes to see Thor, cat-footed as ever, bending down over her with concern in his eyes.

‘Jane,’ he says, ‘why are you lying on the floor?’

Jane props herself up on her elbows, and the holograph floating above her head rises automatically by a few inches. ‘I thought maybe a different angle might help.’

He blinks at her.

‘That and my back and shoulders were starting to ache from standing,’ she admits, before letting herself lie back down again. Leaning on her elbows is certainly not an improvement over the floor.

Thor vanishes from view momentarily, before returning with a pillow, which he inserts under her head. Then he lowers himself down carefully to sit cross-legged at her head and begins to comb his fingers gently through her hair.

‘Oh,’ she says, eyes fluttering shut again, ‘oh, OK, you can keep doing that.’

She hears a quiet rumble of his laugh but she really doesn’t care.

‘Have you been working here since I left?’ he says.

‘Mmm,’ she says vaguely, as he slides his hands over her scalp. ‘I think I had a nap earlier.’ She doesn’t know for sure. Her sleeping patterns are odd enough with a twenty-four hour day and work schedule, let alone visiting a different planet. And besides, she really, _really_ doesn’t care when he’s doing that.

He’s silent for a few minutes, continuing to massage her head in a way that’s going a good way towards making her forget why she’s all tensed up. 

‘Success has eluded you?’ he asks at last.

Jane opens her eyes and laughs darkly. ‘Yeah, so far,’ she says, looking up at him. ‘It’s just… it’s not like how I’m used to thinking and it’s so far ahead I worry I can never— and my brain’s just so full of everything. Every single little thing I try to understand I need to read four thousand years of extra material. There’s just too much! And it’s not… it’s just not coming together.’

‘Have you considered taking a break?’ he asks.

‘A break?’ she says stupidly. This _is_ a break, surely.

‘Legend tells that some unlikely souls are known to pause in their work for reasons of leisure,’ deadpans Thor. ‘History does not say what trials they faced, but—’

She swats his knee. ‘Haha, you’re a real comedian,’ she says, but she sits up anyway.

He grins at her, then leans over to bump his nose against hers. She laughs and closes the gap between them for a kiss.

‘All right,’ she says, ‘but only if you’re taking it with me.’

Thor nods. ‘My father has need of me no more this day,’ he says. He gets to his feet and extends a hand to pull her upwards and into his arms. ‘When I have been confined to chambers for many hours, I often find physical activity relaxes me,’ he suggests, raising an eyebrow.

Jane smirks.

‘I didn’t mean that!’ he protests, before grinning in a way that makes her stomach coil in anticipation. ‘Not _only_ that, anyway.’ He reaches up to tuck her hair behind her ear. ‘You’ve spent much time reading the words of our scholars. Perhaps you might like to see more of the land?’

Squeezing his arms, Jane smiles and nods. Since she’s been on Asgard, she’s seen as much as she can, but there’s just _so much_ she knows she’ll never get around to seeing, not in her one lifetime. 

‘Do you feel up for a climb?’ he asks.

‘Oh, yes, sure!’ she says. ‘What did you have in mind?’ They’ve done a bit of that back on Earth — usually when she’s needed to get some readings from some obscure spot up a mountain. Thor can fly, of course, and he can take her and her equipment and probably her car, but she’s always felt a satisfaction from getting there under her own steam. ‘Just as long as you guys do, like, safety equipment. And I can get some clothes.’ She looks down at the dress she’s wearing. Even if by the palace’s fashion standards it’s plain, it’s not something to wear whilst doing anything physically demanding. 

Thor smiles. ‘Follow me,’ he says.

The clothes he finds for her are from an area of his own rooms within the palace (a wing big enough she hasn’t even explored all of it). She puts on brown pants that feel like suede to the touch but are sturdy enough to be leather; a light tunic which drops nearly to her knees; and a tough leather jerkin that’s almost a climbing harness with straps running around her torso and up to her shoulders. Thor shows her how to tighten the straps to help fit it to her size, clearly trying not to laugh if the muscle twitching in his cheek is anything to go by.

‘What?’ she asks at last, poking him in the middle. Since he’s got his armour on, he probably can’t feel it, but he’s clearly trying to look innocent now.

‘These were mine from when I was a boy,’ he says. ‘I thought perhaps they might be small enough, but…’ He gestures. Both the tunic and the jerkin clearly have enough room for several extra inches of shoulder muscle and chest, let alone height. Jane snorts, but makes a few tentative movements and finds the clothes comfortable enough. Much closer to what she’s used to than floor-length gowns, that’s for sure.

‘They’re fine,’ she says, poking him again and marvelling at how here the fabric can apparently last a thousand years and still be not just wearable but soft. ‘C’mon, let’s get going before you pull a muscle or something.’

While she’d changed, he’d fetched a bag of supplies, and now he drapes it over his shoulder, leads her to the balcony and tugs her in close. 

‘It’s a long hike to get to the climb I had thought of,’ he explains. ‘And a dangerous one. I trust you won’t mind a short flight instead.’

Jane beams and wraps her arms around him. Flying with Thor is like a roller-coaster. She probably should be more nervous about it, given that unlike a roller-coaster, there are no safety regulations. But Thor’s hold on her is always steady, immovable, and she can’t believe there’s any chance he’ll drop her.

When he takes off, she whoops in delight, looking up to see him grinning even as he stares ahead, concentrating on their destination.

She expects him to turn towards the mountain range protecting the city, and for a moment he does, swooping behind the palace and in the opposite direction to the rainbow bridge. Then suddenly he swerves right, now flying parallel to the long range of mountains, and when she looks down she can see him following the path of a river. They’ve already left the bronze and gold buildings of the city behind and beneath them the ground is drak green with the tops of trees, occasionally interrupted by the dark, rocky outcrop of the foothills. 

It’s only when she looks up and ahead once more that she realises they’re running out of land. Jane holds her breath. Logically she knows she’s on a world with an edge, but it’s a sight her brain just isn’t used to. The way the horizon just… _stops_ and the space beyond just starts... From talking to Thor she knows a little bit about how it all works: the artificial gravity wells and the way the atmosphere is held in place and how they create seasons, but it still seems ludicrously impossible. And now they’re flying towards the edge of the world.

Thor easily navigates a few of the smaller hills at the edges of the mountains. When Jane turns around to peer over the arm that carefully holds her, she can no longer see most the city. The golden tower of the palace itself still peaks above the black rocks they’ve crossed, but that’s her only view of where they’ve come from. 

They land precisely, Thor’s feet touching the ground with barely a bump before he lowers her down. They’re on a relatively flat area of rock, maybe fifteen foot square, which leads right to the very edge of Asgard. Surrounding them in all other directions is a field of rocks and boulders, many seeming to precariously balanced on top of each other. Most of the view is nothing but the dark grey or black of the rocks, but every now and again there’s the green of a straggly plant forcing its way through the gaps in the hard ground. In all directions but the edge, the land leads sharply upwards into steep slopes of the mountains. 

From the ground, Jane can no longer see even the highest tip of the palace. With her back to the edge, she knows it should be somewhere behind the hills to her left, but there’s no sight of it. She and Thor are very much on their own out here, and it all seems very inhospitable, especially with the sun is already beginning to sink towards that horizon. Licking her suddenly dry lips, she can almost taste the rocks in the air. There’s very little growing for miles. 

She turns back to Thor. ‘So this would be us avoiding a difficult hike, right?’ she asks, raising her eyebrows.

He grins, leans down to caress her cheek and kiss her and nods. ‘Don’t you trust me?’ he asks, a teasing lilt to his voice.

Jane laughs and folds her arms, waiting for him to reveal whatever he’s planned. He shrugs the bag from his shoulders, extracts some rope from inside it, and it’s only when he begins to fasten it to one of the nearby rocks that she realises what that means.

‘Wait, we’re going down? Over the edge?’

He nods. 

With both a flutter of nerves in her stomach at the thought, and a rising bubble of excitement, Jane inches closer to the edge, keen to peer over it. At the same time, she keeps half an eye on Thor, who’s fastened the rope securely and has now piled another couple of boulders on top of it. He then approaches her and together they loop the rope around her.

‘Although this is more to help you climb and for the familiarity,’ he says. ‘There are other safety measures too.’ He stoops to pick up a loose stone from the ground, steps right to the edge, and tosses it lightly into oblivion.

It should fall out of view almost instantly. Instead it lurches downwards for the first couple of feet and then rapidly slows, until it’s hovering, not even below the edge.

‘The temptation for young men and women trying to prove their daring necessitates such a safety net,’ he says, a wry grin in place. She wonders if that includes him, before he wielded Mjolnir, and doesn’t find the idea unlikely. ‘Are you ready?’ he asks.

She peers over the edge into nothingness, takes a deep breath, and nods.

~*~

It’s not an easy climb. 

It’s the sort of climb that, by herself, she wouldn’t go near no matter what was at the other end. Even if they weren’t climbing with their back to the stars and an endless abyss of nothingness below them (which she has to admit is pretty damn amazing even if she’s slightly terrified) it would be difficult. After the first near-vertical drop, which is fine, the rocks sheer inwards and she finds herself hanging and scrabbling for purchase with a yelp. Forcefield or not, she can’t convince herself it’s all that safe. Even with the light Thor bought — a floating ball that bobs alongside her — something in her gut refuses to believe that magic exists enough to protect her.

But then Thor is next to her, one large hand holding her to the rock face, while he hangs with the other and no other support.

‘This section is hard,’ he says. ‘It eases out further down. Do not fear letting go if you must, but I hope you’ll allow me to assist you?’

She does, because there’s no other way.

After a bit she finds her rhythm, searching for handholds and footholds more to brace herself against than to hold her up fully. Thor climbs down around her, ever-present and reassuring, even as she mutters angrily about superhero boyfriends and their lack of knowledge of human limitations. He never ceases to support her with one of his hands, and sometimes his other hand is the only thing that holds him to the rocks. Despite that he never even slips. 

Finally they transition again to a sheer vertical face and Jane pauses to breathe.

‘You are flying me back up,’ she tells Thor in between breaths. ‘Not a superhuman, remember?’

‘Ah, but you are no longer angry at your equations, are you?’

‘You sound way too smug for the person I’m actually taking my anger out on.’

He laughs. ‘It’ll be worth it,’ he promises, although he’s refused to say why throughout the climb.

Jane huffs and starts downwards again. 

They go slowly, even now she’s moving without support. Her hands and feet and joints are all starting to ache, but it’s the ache of being used rather than _not_ used, and it feels better. Grumbling at the rock face in front of her nose is also proving a remarkable stress relief. She’s moved on from complaining about superheroes to the vaguest of grunts and curse words thrown out for no reason. 

Thor, she realises now that she can occasionally look around to see him, is far from an expert at this sort of climbing. He misses or misjudges footholds and handholds, his limbs frequently going without purchase. But what he lacks in that skill, he makes up for in sheer strength and endurance. His height and therefore long reach only help. He frequently scoots down ahead of her to work out how the lay of the land, and then scrambles back up to chat, not even a little out of breath.

Eventually, after half an hour’s climbing time (interspersed with a lot of breaks — one where she sat in the forcefield itself and stared out at the stars, and a couple where she dumped her weight on a not-at-all-perturbed Thor), Thor appears next to her after scouting ahead for a few minutes.

‘There’s a cave entrance, ten feet below,’ he says. ‘I’ll get inside. If you climb down alongside I’ll help you in.’

It’s with only minor flailing of limbs that he gets her inside. The entrance is barely wide enough to admit Thor, but after only a couple of feet the tunnel expands into one where even he can comfortably stand. The air inside is warm — much warmer than she expected, and she can feel herself beginning to sweat already. It’s surprisingly fresh, though, without the staleness that can come from cave systems. With only the small entrance open to the stars and magical light Thor brought remaining outside, it’s nearly completely dark. Because of that, the glow coming at the end of the tunnel is impossible to miss.

Thor gestures for her to go, that secretive smile on his face. He knows what’s coming. This, evidently, is what he wanted to show her.

Grinning to herself and biting her lip, Jane follows his direction.

The tunnel lasts only twenty feet before she’s forced to navigate an outcrop of rocks taller than she is. The light has only grown in strength, but even with that, it takes her eyes a few moments to adjust as she steps out of the tunnel itself.

It’s a cave.

No, to call it a cave is an injustice. She’s on an uneven platform of rocks part way up, but still the walls soar up far above her head, craggy and dark and somehow glittering. It’s not until she sees there are some holes in the roof that give her a view of the stars and moons above Asgard that she realises the cave spans the entire height of their climb. It’s dominated not by rocks, but by a huge, clear blue waterfall on the other side of the cave. The water itself is seemingly suffused with light without any source. It tumbles from an opening three quarters of the way up, streaming downwards into a huge pool, spraying warm mist throughout the chamber and surrounded by uneven green splotches that coat the black rock at odd intervals. Around the side, streams lead from the pool and vanish into nooks and crannies in the rock face. She guesses they must fall off the world itself.

Eyes wide, she stumbles down the rocks that are piled up to the platform. The flatter ground surrounding the pool is the same black rock as the walls, although smooth beneath her feet. It too sparkles in the impossible glow from the water itself. The green patches reveal themselves to be soft, damp moss that squishes pleasantly under her fingers.

Skittering stones behind her alert her to Thor’s approach and she turns to grin at him.

‘What is this place?’ she asks, but doesn’t wait for an answer before turning back to the glowing waters. ‘It’s magic, isn’t it?’ she says, half to herself. 

‘I discovered this cavern when I was a boy,’ Thor answers. Even though he speaks quietly, he’s close enough to her that the rush of the waterfall can’t drown him out. ‘The water flows from the mountains through underground caves and tunnels before reaching the edge of Asgard and falling. This is one such place where that can be witnessed.’

‘But, the _light_?’ she breathes, because it shouldn’t be possible.

He slides his hand into hers and for once she’s glad he doesn’t hug her fully. The warm air is made humid by the spray and she reaches to wipe damp hair from her face.

‘One of the engines holding the world aloft is part of the cave system,’ he replies. ‘The water they use becomes infused with magic and excess heat.’

‘Oh,’ says Jane softly, still staring. ‘Wow, this is— this place is amazing!’ 

Beside her, Thor shifts and leans down to kiss her cheek. ‘I am glad you find it so,’ he says. ‘I’ve always thought it beautiful.’

When she next drags her eyes from the waterfall and the pool, Thor’s already pulled off bag, cape, armour and undershirt, leaving him topless. He positions his belongings in the driest patch he can — shielded by a rock from the spray — and then turns back to Jane.

‘Well that was record timing,’ she says, but grins approvingly. ‘Any excuse!’

Thor chuckles and steps forward to inspect the pool.

‘Hold on a sec,’ says Jane, fumbling in her clothes for her phone. It’s one of Stark’s latest and he’s promised her it’s water-proof, lightning-proof, and crush-proof. She hasn’t told any of that to Thor because he’d take it as a personal challenge and she’s pretty confident he’d win. ‘Darcy made me get instagram and I need something to put on it.’

‘Oh yes?’ says Thor, grinning. He stands by the edge of the pool, one foot up on a rock, absolutely posing for the camera. The spray and the glow from the waterfall on his bare torso are making Jane want to hurry down to him, even though she’s far too tired from the climb to do anything other than stare at the moment.

‘Uh huh,’ she replies, aiming the camera. ‘I’m going to caption this one “Asgard’s natural beauty… also a sparkly magical cave”. Hashtag: my life is accidentally a Mills and Boon novel.’

Thor smirks and puffs out his chest slightly more. It _should_ be ridiculous, but because it’s Thor, he somehow makes it work.

‘Your hashtag is a little long to truly become popular, beloved,’ he tells her cheerfully.

She raises an eyebrow. ‘Pretty sure no Mills and Boon hero ever lectures his girlfriend on correctly using social media,’ she tells him, as she take a couple more photos before re-pocketing the camera and beginning to struggle out of her own clothes. She’s hoping for a swim and, even if they can’t, it’s still too warm down here to be wearing this many layers.

Thor’s sudden reappearance at her side to help her undress doesn’t surprise her at all.

‘Pretty sure,’ he says, echoing her words, his voice slightly slower as he tries out her phrasing, ‘no Mills and Boon hero has sixty million instagram followers to maintain.’

Jane snorts out a laugh as between them, they shed her leather outer layers. She thinks of Thor’s instagram — pictures of him at the beach and lifting weights with Steve Rogers and volunteering at animal shelters — and shakes her head.

‘You know, I don’t want to ruin it for you, but don’t think they follow you for your concise hashtags,’ she tells him.

He smirks and helps her off with her tunic, before shaking his head at the fact that she’s wearing a camisole and sports bra, both from Earth, underneath.

‘How many layers are you wearing?’ he murmurs, sliding his hands under the camisole and smoothing them up over her ribs. Jane laughs, strips off that top, her pants, and the thin undershorts she wears as part of her Asgardian outfits. Now that she’s dressed only in her Midgardian underwear, Thor seems pleased, stroking his hands down and over her legs and then back up, giving her ass a playful squeeze as he does.

‘I need to rest my arms and legs for like, an hour before I do anything requiring moving,’ she says. ‘But feel free to lose the pants. Just in case I get bored of the second prettiest view Asgard has for me.’

Thor does as he’s told. He never needs much encouraging to get naked, which Jane is totally fine with. She mirrors his touch, slowly moving her hands up and down his body, enjoying the way his breath speeds up as she traces out muscles that, frankly, put Mills and Boon covers to shame. It takes all of five seconds for Thor to decide she’d be better off without her bra on, and almost as long again for him to succeed in removing it. He has large hands and a thousand years’ of being used to various completely different methods to fasten clothes.

‘Ha! I am triumphant!’ he says when he succeeds, to her giggles. ‘I’m convinced you wear these as a challenge.’ 

At that, she snorts audibly. ‘Yeah, because I always want to keep my clothes on when you’re around.’ 

He grins and drops to his knees to plant kisses down her collarbone and between her breasts. Now that she’s stripped down, the warmth of the cavern is no longer overbearing, and Jane rests her arms on his shoulders and curls her fingers through his hair. He looks up at her, running his hands up and down her legs as he does so and smiling very gently. His beard tickles her belly as he does and Jane wriggles slightly, liking the feel of it all the same. She scratches one of her hands through his beard and he tilts his head to kiss her palm before beaming back up at her.

‘You are truly the most beautiful woman in all the Nine Realms,’ he tells her, in a tone so sincere she feels a bit of a blush start to rise in her cheeks, even after all this time together. 

‘I bet you say that to all the girls you get mostly naked in caves,’ she teases, aware she’s deflecting a little. Thor frowns up a her, almost pouting that she’s questioned his integrity. ‘Can we go for a swim?’ she asks quickly, before he can say anything more. ‘Is the water safe, I mean?’

At that he smiles again. ‘It is,’ he replies, ‘but I thought you needed rest.’ His eyebrow raise is pretty filthy and Jane tugs on his hair and laughs.

‘“Swim” might have been the wrong word,’ she says. ‘I plan to find a nice comfy rock to sit on and watch you showing off about how much energy you’ve got and how fast you can go and how long you can hold your breath for.’

Thor laughs. ‘That I can most definitely do,’ he says. 

Jane shimmies out of her underpants as he scrambles to his feet. Then, before she can say or do anything, he scoops her into his arms and carries her down to the pool.

‘Oh no, you’d better not…!’ She shrieks as he jumps into the water taking her with him, as though he weren’t playing Mr-Romantic barely seconds ago.

It’s like falling into a bath, albeit a more surprising one that she’d planned. The water is warmer than the air and she can practically feel it soothing her aching muscles. All the same, it’s almost lighter than she expected, and she doesn’t float quite as readily as she normally would. Instead she has to pump her feet harder than expected, and when she breaks the surface she gasps in a breath before scowling over at Thor.

‘You’re in trouble, buddy,’ she tells him.

He grins, because he knows he’s too damn adorable for it to last, even as Jane splashes him. She paddles closer and wraps her arms around his neck and lets him swim them both idly around in circles.

‘As you requested, allow me to show off all the energy I have,’ he says, still smiling. 

Jane waits until his route takes them by the edge of the pool before detaching herself. The rocks here are uneven, but not rough, and it doesn’t take her too long to find a ledge to sit on and she leans back against the edge of the pool behind her, sighing happily. By this time Thor is swimming properly: his long strokes taking him towards the waterfall itself. Just before, he disappears under, and doesn’t resurface until he’s halfway back to her.

‘Is this fast enough for you?’ he calls before continuing towards her.

Jane giggles and, once he’s within reach, nudges his shoulder with her foot. ‘Not if you’re tired already,’ she says.

He’s not. Of course. He pretends to look affronted before he swims off again, faster this time. Jane leans back in her perch and watches through half closed eyes. There’s not much to see, as he’s rarely above the water, but the smooth ease to his swimming and the speed with which he goes are impressive. She half dozes while he works off all the spare energy he apparently has after ‘only’ half an hour’s difficult climb preceded by all his fight training that morning. He’s a machine. Sometimes it still surprises her a little, even here and now on his alien homeworld.

She’s staring up at the glittering rocks and holes through to the stars when Thor stops his exercise and returns to her, treading water in front of her. His head is only slightly below hers with her sitting on the ledge and she ducks to kiss him, noting his too-pink cheeks.

‘Hard work?’ she asks teasingly.

‘Not really,’ he says with an arrogant shrug and a smile. ‘The water is just a little warm for prolonged exercise.’ He plants his hands either side of her hips on the ledge in order to push himself up to kiss her again. Jane parts her legs to let him come closer and grins when he catches her eye. She’s a bit less tired and achey now, after all.

Thor licks her bottom lip, and she’s only too happy to open her mouth to him, encouraging him to do the same and pulling him in as closely as she can. Thor willingly follows her lead, and then he moves to kiss along her jawline and down her neck, making Jane’s hands curl against his shoulders.

‘You know,’ she says, threading her fingers through his hair, ‘I think there’s a nice, big, comfy pile of moss over there.’

‘Mmm,’ agrees Thor. He nuzzles her neck and kisses her earlobe, before leaning back to look at her, blue eyes sparkling in the light from the water. ‘But I seem to recall I have not yet satisfied all of your demands.’

Jane frowns.

Thor grins. ‘You wished me to show off about how long I can hold my breath for,’ he says. Before she can reply, he takes a breath and ducks beneath the surface. Jane giggles as he kisses her belly and blows out bubbles that tickle her skin. He’s ridiculous. She slides her fingers under the water and then along his beard, and receives a kiss on her hand for her troubles, then a nip of her thumb. Still laughing, she returns her fingers to tangle in his hair, which underwater is floating around like a golden mane, also tickling her arms and stomach. 

She’s about to tug him back to the surface — she’s not particularly interested in waiting around just so he can prove he doesn’t need oxygen as much as her — when he suddenly begins making his way deliberately downwards, licking and kissing as he does.

‘Oh,’ she says. _Oh._ Her fingers tighten in his hair. She feels the drag of his beard against her belly as he smiles.

It turns out, he can hold his breath for a very long time indeed.

~*~

Later, they do make their way to the squishy pile of moss. Both are pink in the cheeks and breathing heavily, although for different reasons. She forgives him his smug grin. She always does. Besides, she’s got plans to wipe it off his face.

~*~

Later still, she lounges across the top of him. She’s still naked. Even in night — and by now the sun must have set — it’s hardly cooled. Droplets of water still cling to her skin in the humid air and she absently rubs circles on her arm, connecting the drops. Thor has one arm loosely wrapped around her, gently rubbing his thumbs in a circle on her ribs. Occasionally he leans into her hair and plants a kiss on her head. Jane is happy to lie in silence, staring up to the stars she can see. 

As well, she can still see the glowing water out of the corner of her eyes, and she turns to idly watch it. She thinks that some of the water is brighter than other areas. Stronger magic, perhaps? Still, the churn of the waterfall should mix that up and… 

_Wait. What if she changes her models to…?_

She sits up. 

It’s not an answer. It’s a maybe. An avenue to explore. She thinks back to her holograms in the palace and decides that maybe she’s onto something and....

She’s writing before she realises that Thor has handed her a notebook and pen. The reality of where she is comes back to her quickly when the pen smudges due to the slightly damp paper. She blinks down at herself and then turns to Thor.

‘Did you… bring this?’ It’s a stupid question. Of course he did.

Thor just laughs and gestures to the bag he’d carried. ‘And there’s a small computer too if you need assistance with your calculations,’ he says. Then he leans back on his arms and stretches out contentedly. It’s a hell of a sight. And he’s looking a bit smug again. Jane is tempted to abandon her scribblings before she’s even begun.

Thor opens one eye and seems to sense her dilemma, even as he grins at her open admiration. ‘Do your work!’ he tells her with a laugh. ‘I will still be here when you’ve solved all the mysteries of the universe.’ 

Something in his face is far too serious and Jane feels her heart clench. She’s not sure what to say, so instead she leans over to kiss him lightly. ‘You better be,’ she replies at last. ‘There’s no way I can get back up to the top without you!’

Thor just laughs again, squeezes her hand, and nudges her back to her math.


End file.
